write
us at solsbury@digital.net
write
us at solsbury@digital.net
August 22, 2002
Here we go, the last moon phase before Up. This was kinda light, but hey, he ran out of songs to preview:)
Okay, time to begin with the rants/raves...
Most people already heard
"Signal to Noise" as it was played on that BBC Gabriel
documentary a while back. While some have complained the Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan isn't their cup of tea, we like his contribution
here. He put a lot of heart into his voice and you can feel it.
However, we're still not sure
about the stripped down arrangement. Like with "I Grieve"
Gabriel keeps insisting that the reworked Up version is better,
but we still like the original versions of both songs better.
The song still rocks, and the lyrics are relevant for these times,
but still...maybe we should stop listening to the originals as
they ruin all subsequent versions of songs for us...
On the downloads page: Check
it out! There's finally a screen saver! It's pretty low-key, but
it does have the handy countdown feature. Some freaky images,
so far we haven't seen any of PG.
Yes, we already tried to see
what happens when we set our computer time/date to Sept 24, and
all we get is a "this screen saver has expired" message.
So we tried to set it to Sept. 23. Same message. Then we set the
date to Aug. 23 and..."this screen saver has expired".
When we set it back to the correct date, it worked just fine again.
So we know at least the Mac
OS X version must be smart enough to know not to let anyone
cheat time. Can anyone out there fool their screen saver to think
that it's final day of the countdown? We're holding out for a
fireworks display.
On the outro, Gabriel says
that the video has been filmed, and also mentions that the real
Barry Williams ("I Was a Teenage Brady") has a cameo
in it.
Now, in this interview, this line was pointed out to us by webmaster Polo, where Gabriel was quoted:
And then in the outro, Gabriel says something similar...that he didn't make the Brady Bunch connection until he had read some discussion on "some fans sites."
We're flattered to be acknowledged peripherally, but...(1) What's with the "sites"? What other fan sites talk about stuff like this? Can someone tell us where they're all hiding? It's lonely out here in Gabeweb! (2) Would it have killed him to say our URL? Or hold up a yellow mug to the camera, wink and say, "I found my thrill on Solsbury Hill!"?
As of this writing, the tour
page is still down. But, as they say, "Don't Give Up!"
In other news...Jürgen let us in on the creation of this German Mircrosite that has all about Up. Although it's in German, it looks great, has tons of pictures and PG quotes (in English) and it has a wonderfully written uber-review by dedicated fan and writer Karin Woywood. We're hoping in due time someone will do an English trnaslation, but from German readers, this is one of the most thorough and best Up preview reviews so far!
And last, but not least, Mr. Mozo pointed us out to this nifty online interview with Gabriel that's at a site/project called "Why are you creative?" It's a total bitch to navigate and it reeks of artsy-fartsyness (The site should be called, "Why do creative people have to design sites that are so damn pretentious and difficult to use?") but we'll show you how to get to the good stuff.
On the first page, skip intro. Then on the main page, click on Film and TV. After that page loads, click on "Why are you creative? TV Series". After that, you'll see a series of pictures. Click on the arrow to scroll through the pictures until you see Gabriel. He may be difficult to recognize, as this film was taken during Phase 1 of the goatee, well before it got totally out of control.
Once you start the flash video for the interview, feel free to have a meal and take a long walk, as it takes a looooong time to load. It helps that it shows some intriguing PG trivia while it loads. Did you know that Gabriel used to be in Genesis, and had a hit song called "Solsbury Hill"? Neither did we.
Once the interview finally loads, you're treated to a few nice quotes from our man. You're free to ponder the nature of creativity, and most of all, wonder why is Gabriel wearing overalls?
Expect more updates in the near future, but in the meantime, contemplate these links:
If Gabriel is going to be shaving his head completely, then at least he should be cool enough to get a tatoo like this.
Quiz time! Two of these three men are Solsburians. Can you guess which ones?
August 21, 2002
Update: Go to the news section on RRW, it chronicles what's been going on with the Real World servers and ticket sales. Short take: Servers are wonky, and they've taken down the ticket sales until things get fixed, although some people did manage to buy tickets.
Oh, and they ask, "What's wrong with Milan?" Answer: Everyone in Milan got *their* tickets three weeks ago. Them Milanians don't mess around when it comes to this stuff!
Anyway, let's hope everything works over there by tomorrow night so us Lunatic Fringers can get our Full Moon fix!
Okay, we've known about this for a few hours but we've just now been able to go online to see for ourselves as RRW wasn't letting us in.
On the new tour button on Full Moon Club pages, it reads:
Allright! Apparently membership has it's privileges.
We knew the Up album cover needed something, but we didn't know what. Thanks to Photoshop wizard Ingemar Lövgren, now we know! Niiiiiiice! :) Can we get a round of applause here?
Saskia was cool enough to share this with everyone: If you go to BBC 3, and click on "Listen to the Programme" and then click on "Late Junction (WED)" you should hear a streaming Real Audio version of "Growing Up" right at the beginning of the show.
We think. We can't get Real Audio to work under OS X, plus we're too busy listening to "Barry Williams Show" to feel too bad about it. Anyway, those who have heard it are raving about it!
A few months ago, we got a heads-up that Rolling Stone would be publishing a blurb on Peter Gabriel. They just now decided to put it online, as Christophe Loerke has discovered. Not much we didn't already know, but a nice article nevertheless. Undercover also has a small write-Up, and if you scroll down on this page, you'll see that Pitchfork has an irreverent piece as well.
Side note: While crusing the Pitchfork site,
we also came across this funny,
snarky, mixed review of Ovo. Some points we agree with, others
we don't, but we gotta point out this quote of the piece, emphasis
ours:
Yeah, Iarla! You *go*, girl! ;)
August 6, 2002
Well, not quite, but you get the picture.
Now that we, and just about everyone else, had the chance to listen to "Barry Williams Show" (now available at Geffen and Radio Real World) we gotta comment. We've been following several online topics and getting e-mails about what others think of the song. Most people say they love it. Some people think it's great for the single, but can't wait to hear the more melancholy tracks that are bound to be on Up. A few have complained that as far as quality goes, it sounds "cheap," like they used a $100 Casio keyboard to create the horn and synth effects. To this we say, hey, it's about trash television...it's supposed to sound a little cheap and trashy!
What do we think? For one thing, it's damn catchy! This song is so catchy, no one will be able to resist singing it at work while standing on a chair and dancing. This may be a problem if you work in a library or a funeral home.
You'd think that since the full version clocks in at 7 minutes plus, it would drag after a while, but it doesn't. It's upbeat, but it's "darker" than most of Gabriel's other singles, so we know the Snobs will love that. To be honest, we originally weren't crazy about the topic simply because (1) we knew the overall message would be "the Jerry Springer Show is Bad" to which we say, "Yeah, tell us something we don't know." (2) someone else covered this topic in this song and this song.
However, after listening to the song and analyzing the lyrics, we've done a 180 turnaround. For one thing, this tune is so catchy, it's hard to fault it for anything. Another thing is that while we initially thought that PG was making Williams out to be totally irredeemable, after we stopped dancing long enough to pay attention to the lyrics, we discovered that Gabriel does make Williams to be a slightly sympathetic character. See, it's Barry's last show, as he's the victim of some back-stabbing corporate politics and is somewhat bitter about that (but then again, he's so wound up talking about his show, he doesn't get too choked up about it.) And it's hard to hate a guy who really loves his job and takes great pride in his work. Leave it to Peter Gabriel to give depth to a guy who's main character trait is being shallow.
Okay, enough of that, and on to other stuff: We'd like to offer a big thank-you to the Real World web team for posting the tour news and also for revealing the final track list of Up. If you haven't seen it, go to the Full Moon Club and check out the news section.
We heard from Joe McArdle and Kari Pacer that some radio stations have played BWS on air already. We suggest that people start calling their local radio stations and requesting BWS. If they seem clueless about Up, and about PG for that matter, use that opportunity to educate them...and refer them to this website. Okay, you're allowed to refer them to www.petergabriel.com, too.
Ooh! Check this out:
It's a cool colorization of an album cover close-up, contributed by Brad Cornelius. Brad also found this link concerning the tech side of Up, custom made for audio geeks.
We're working on our future concert page...we're
listing concerts in chronological order, and here's the info we're
going to list:
And speaking of the upcoming tour, we've heard some rumors that the stage is going to be a double conected stage, somewhat similar to the Secret World Tour set-up, complete a lunar theme. We'll rant and rave on that at a later update.
Rodney Krueger says PG is gonna be on tv!
You can see PG's performance with Afro Celts on cable TV on the TRIO cable network, the program is titled "Songs Under a Big Sky"
Roel from Holland says that the Virgin Music site has a page of Gabriel stuff, and it has a nice close-up of Gabriel, plus this gallery, where you can see PG eating a leaf. For some reason we don't see that diet fad catching on.
That's all for now. Thanks for all who wrote us and wished us a good nights sleep after the previous update. Thanks:)
Aug. 1, 2002
*Sigh*. We're tired, and we're not in a mood to write, but the news keeps pouring in. If you want a real update with witty prose from us, you'll have to wait. But for now, you'll just have to do with the bare bones:
The official Geffen site has streaming audio of the full album version of Barry Williams Show. It's up at the top under the audio section.
Go to the full moon club and click under news. They have the cover of the Barry Williams single (ooh, pretty:) They also have a list of cities where they know PG is going to play. If your city is not listed, don't freak out just yet...they don't even have the dates/specific venues yet, so there is room for change. However, we're suprised Chicago isn't listed yet.
The page also states "Last minute discusions are still in progeress [sic] to define the final track list/album content - don't believe all you read elsewhere." Either there may be a few surprises in store, or they want to confuse everyone because Radio Real World is miffed that the forums and newsgroup had the original tracklist info and the edited tracklist publicized before Real World did:)
And we've been getting alot of e-mails begging us for more concert tour details, as if we know everything, but are just holding out on everyone. People, the reason why there isn't a comprehensive tour date list is because there are no specific tour dates to list! (Other than the ones already listed below, of course). However, now that we know that people are really itching for such a list, we will plan on making one shortly, whether there is anything specific to report or not.
Now we're going to bed. Sometimes we think it was better when there wasn't any PG news to report...
July 30, 2002
We actually heard from several sources about this, but since Jürgen from Germany put it all in the best format, we'll quote him:
Hello,
I found 4 tour dates for Europe already:
Munich 31.08.02
Paris 08.09.02 ....see... olympiahall.com 50-65 Euro
Milan 16.09.02....see...ticketone.it 34 Euro
Milan 18.09.02..see...ticketone.it 34 Euro
The first Milan show is sold out, but they added
the Sept 18 date, same venue. We've heard that many fans have
bought their tickets through olympiahall.
July 30, 2002
We're back from Blizzard Beach and we're crankier than ever from having to wait for Up and also from the nasty sunburns we got!
While we heard it from different sources, we heard it from Mr. Mozo first...in September, Gabriel will be performing a few small venue concerts in Europe. The first will be in Milan, Italy on Sept. 16. It's in a disco that holds around 2,000 people. We already know of several people who are going to this show, and we'll give you more details on the others as soon as possible.
A big thank-you goes out to Gary Best who found this VH1 interview. It's pretty good to see the publicity building here.
Well, it looks like the news finally broke on the Barry Williams/Greg Brady connection. Thanks to Karin and Raheeb for finding this while we were on vacation. Earlier, we held our breath and wondered if this would turn into a goofy media war and/or lawsuit between Barry and Peter, but all seems well. It turns out we were right on the money with our final prediction that Gabriel was obilvious to any tv personalities by that name. While at first Williams was puzzled at the song subject, he realized it was just a coincidence.
One interesting thing we learned from this article is that PG digs the Simpsons and Dr. Katz. While Simpsons fans are a dime-a-dozen, we're pleased that PG also likes Dr. Katz...it was one of our favorite shows, but too few folks seem to "get it."
On the new forums, please feel free to post on official Hill threads: The Offical Beard thread, and Why does a luna tic?
Well, we gotta go. We're trying to learn to
resist temptation by watching this
video over and over again. Now, to find that magic headband...
Woo! We were visiting RRW hoping to see Phase 4, but there was no sign of new stuff although the moon was full and fat. We decided to cruise the message boards while waiting, when suddenly, there was a WHOOSH! Everything went black, and when the lights came back on, there was a new gallery, new and improved message boards, the album cover of Up, and new previews!
Clip one We wanted to hear this one ever since we saw the title. It very diffcult to get a feel for this track as it's so soft and he talks over it more than usual. However, it sparks our curiosity...when did PG ever get smacked on the forehead?
Clip two: Ah, the controvertial "I Grieve". People were complaining that after ten years he shouldn't be recycling old material. Well, the good news is that it's substatially different, and will please many a Gabefan. The bad news is, so far, we still like the the original version better. Gabriel says this new version is better, but what does he know? [Committee ducks into the fallout shelter.] However, we'll reserve final judgement until we can hear it in it's entirety a few times.
Clip three; Gabriel talks about the results of the lastest poll. Most of the entries we heartily agreed on (especially "Curtains") but...(1) "Family and the Fishing Net" is number one. What's up with that? As far has PG songs go, it's rather blah. Those of you who voted for this track should be ashamed of yourselves! Anyone can try to convince us that "Fishing Net" is a good song, and we're willing to hear you out before we explain why you're wrong. (2) If Gabriel doesn't perform "Solsbury Hill" we're going to riot and it's not gonna be pretty.
Then he ends the clip with the cryptic, "Why did the luna tic(k)?" Huh? Either he's speaking in code and we need to decifer it, or he's making a joke we just don't "get". Okay...guess that's why he's the Big Kahuna Lunatic. Or maybe just before he spoke that line was when he got smacked on the forehead. Anyway, it's better than hearing "full and fat" for the 4,327th time.
Okay, we knew what the album cover was like a couple of weeks ago, but we vowed to keep it a secret until it went public. Well, it went public, along with a definite American release date, that being Sept 24. Thanks to Brad for being the first to write us on that.
At first we weren't sure what to think of this cover. But the more we look at it, the more we like it, especially since we've received better shots that reveal more detail.
And we can't resist: PG's beard is just getting more and more bizarre. As Kari stated last month, it's starting to resemble a scary weather pattern. We say if it continues in this vein when he tours, it's going to resemble a class 4 hurricane, and the World Meteorological Organization is going to give it its own name.
News from Real World Notes: PG has a concert scheduled for Atlanta, GA for Nov. 5! Anyone near Atlanta who would like to meet up before the show? Post your thoughts here!
Speaking of the Notes, Don Morgan states: "...all Notes subscribers will be receiving a special treat around the time of the last full moon before release, so do keep your eyes on the night sky (and your mail box)!" We don't know what the surprise is, but assuming that they mean all subscribers, new and old, then maybe you might want to visit this site and punch a "subscribe" button.
And where was this program back in May when we first needed it?
Well, we're going to take a quick vacation
to Blizzard Beach next week, so if we're slow on our e-mails,
that's why, but until we head off, we'd
love to hear from you!
July 19, 2002
Hey, Intruder was along with Mr. Mozo for the official press listening of Up, and he's written a report here.
Y'know, integrity is an overrated concept, don't ya think?
Okay, okay, we're only kidding.
Sort of.
July 18, 2002
Well. Well well well. Well.
We've heard from two lovely people: One, Edouard who says he managed to snag a press copy of Up that he got off e-bay. Read about that here. Also, we've heard from Mr. Mozo who says that he's invited to an official press listening session of Up courtesy of Virgin Records.
On the one hand, this is exciting in that it shows that Up is soon to be a reality. We have a shot at finally getting to hear all about Up, and we may have an opportunity at hearing Up through a "leak", which we admit is pretty darn tempting.
Hearing all about Up is a great deal...a person can describe it all they want and it's still nothing compared to actually hearing it. With that we welcome Mr. Mozo to tell us what his impressions of his listening session goes, but at the same time, we're going to ask him to keep it vague.
For, on the other hand, we don't feel good about hearing too much about Up, or the idea of hearing all of Up before it's officially released. First, despite the fact that even those who do manage to get a "sneak" copy of Up will eventually buy the real thing, it can't make the Gabeweb community look good in the eyes of Real World and PG. All the work that people went into making an official release only to find that thanks to illegal digital theivery (justify it all you want, that's what it is) it's already old news to everyone. Second, it kind of takes the surprise and excitement out of an actual release date. We envisioned everyone calling in sick so they can pick up a copy and listen to it at leisure. But if we've heard all of it before the official release, then really, what's the point?
So, to prove our Solsburian integrity, even if we're offered an illegal "sneak" copy of Up, we're not going to accept, difficult as it may be to do so. And we know that may mean that 90% of the Gabeweb fans out there will have heard all of Up before we do, putting us at a disadvantage for being a PG news site. But, we have our convictions, and we figure that we've waited this long for Up, we can wait until it's official.
We can't make anyone do anything, as we're not the morality music police. However, we ask that people consider doing what we're doing and not support passing around unauthorised sneaky peaks of Up around on the 'Net.
Sole exception: *cough cough ahem* An official outlet, such as Real World or Virgin Records sends us a pre-release copy of Up. Then we'd be more than happy to have a listen and use that knowlege to drum up support for the official release (hint hint).
Hey, we said we had integrity, but we never
said anything about being above currying favor.
July 14, 2002
Hello, Lunatics, Lunatic Fringers, and honorary Solsburians!
After our little rant last week (recap: Nobody loves us, please send us e-mail, blah blah) we were overwhelmed by the outpouring of love. It's greatly appreciated. Although, we were kinda surprised to find out that someone posted a message on the Moon Club message boards, to the effect of, "Please write these guys, they're dying for attention."
Hey! This was supposed to be a private Solsbury Committee Pity Party. Invitation only! But the lunatics are so cool we let them participate anyway.
So we appreciate the e-mails, but we'd like to clarify a few things for those who seemed especially concerned. We were never really thinking about quitting. As we said, we're not quitters. Plus it would be insane to quit right before the release of Up. Some misinterpreted us as saying that if we didn't make e-mail quota, we'd drive off a cliff and take Moxie, our PG rarities collection, our computer and our site back-up files along for the ride. No, that's not the case. We just wanted to hear from people. The excitement of the new album is a lot more fun with people to share it with. So if you see something you like or don't like here, feel free to write!
Besides, we got what we wanted: Someone finally said they thought the Forrest Gump picture was really funny!
Tune in next time, when Moxie sulks that she doesn't get enough kitty coffee in her weekly allowance. Then we'll hold a Moxie Committee Pretty Kitty Pity-Party. Say that five times fast!
Well, there's not much news at the moment,
but check out this thread
if you want to meet up with fellow online PG fans when he goes
on tour.
July 8, 2002
Four things:
One: Yes, Gabriel is going to make a "special guest appearance" in Munich, Germany when he plays at a music festival on August 31. And look! Gabriel gets to share the stage with a band called Slut! Our friend Michael Heiker is gonna be there. Maybe Karin, too? Anyone else?
Two: We're not so phased by this sort of thing after hearing a polka version of "Solsbury Hill" but the long awaited Don Ho cover of "Shock the Monkey" is soon to be a reality. Pigs flying, Don Ho covering PG songs, Gabriel is about to release an album...what next?
Three: One of these dogs has seen Say Anything. Now Moxie has to admit that dogs aren't totally tasteless after all. Thanks to Jon Thomas for pointing it out to us. PS: This one is kinda funny, too.
Four: Ever since the Full Moon Club started, we've been getting less and less feedback on this page, to the point where it was virtually nothing. This has bummed us out considerably. We thought maybe it was a fluke, but we were also beginning to suspect that now that the Gabenews is happening without our help, perhaps we're not needed anymore.
Then we vented our blues to Jon Thomas and associate Mercutio, and they both said something to the effect of, "Hey, I thought you were getting tons of e-mail and comments on the Hill, so I didn't want to bother you with more e-mail."
So maybe that's the problem...everyone is assuming that we're getting e-mail from everyone else. Well, that's not the case. Bother us! Write us! Or else we'll...cry. And quit! Okay, we won't quit because we're not quitters. But none the less...whether you have some praises, constructive criticism, or just PG related thoughts, please write.
July 4, 2002
You know, normally we'd spend this holiday doing our patriotic duty to sit around and not do a damn thing. However, we've decided that we had enough material to do a decent update. The sacrifices we make to please you, the home viewer.
A several weeks ago, we got an e-mail from Ingemar Lövgren who sent us this picture that Ingemar lovingly fixed up for us. You can tell a remarkable difference between that and the original shot.
We were so impressed we said, "Hey, nice work, Photoshop Genius. Care to do something with this picture?" Ingemar wrote us back a few weeks later and said, "Sure thing." We were quite pleased with the results. This just screams for a caption contest, does it not?
Check out this Entertainment Weekly blurb on Gabriel's Rabbit Proof Fence soundtrack. It features a nice caracature of our man. Of note: What is the white rabbit thinking? Is he wondering if Gabriel's beard is a small, furry sentient being that a bunny could possibly mate with?
And since we have more room on our webserver than previously suspected, we decided to resurrect the following pages:
A series of Gabriel references in Italian comics
Some highlights of the laughably lame Rock n' Roll Comics with The History of Genesis.
A few nice pictures of Gabriel when he was discussing Ovo in Milano, Italy.
And this picture of PG signing an autograph for someone.
Well! Turns out Karin was dead-on with her discovery. Anyone who's had a chance to listen to the clips now know that there is a song called "Barry Williams Show." But let's do a quick run-down, shall we?
The introduction to Phase
3 is very intriguing. Besides the cool new shirt, Gabriel now
has left no doubt (not that there was much doubt before) that
he is tuned into what the online fans are saying. Particulary
revealing is that Gabriel noted that, after reading what fans
were stating online, he liked the idea of having a double album
with one disc called "i" and the other called "o".
We distinctly remembered someone stating that idea on the alt.music.peter-gabriel
newsgroup. We did a quick search, and the earliest mention of
that idea that we could find was from Michael Poloukhine aka Polo,
although a guy named Pete Juvinall has lobbied the
idea a few times since Polo's initial post. Either way, congratulations
Polo and Pete...Gabriel is listening to you!
Gabriel has this weird obsession
with calling the full moon "fat". Projection, perhaps?
It'll only be a matter of time before the moon sues for libel.
Perhaps he should come up with a more sensitive adjective before
that happens.
Isn't it neat after all of
these years of singing, Gabriel still finds new and intriguing
ways to use his voice? "Barry Williams Show" should
please the old-school "Intruder"-loving fans who love
it when Gabriel gets into character. That neat gritty voice that
he pulls off...niiiiiice...and it sounds funky! Eletronica funk
with some grit thrown in.
Houston aka Sledgehammer wrote
us yesterday about our previous rant on the title "Barry
Williams Show" where he reminded us that several years ago
in an interview revealed that he was writing a song inspired by
the Jerry Springer Show. The thought had crossed our minds, but
we weren't convinced that he would switch Jerry Springer with
Barry Williams. Well, turns out that's exactly what PG did...which
brings us to...
Our Barry Williams as Greg
Brady rant below. Our new theory: Gabriel just picked a name at
random and was oblivious that it already belonged to a semi-famous
person. Now that the news is out, either Gabriel is still unaware,
is aware but doesn't care, or just found out and is panicking
about it, yelling at his production team, saying, "Why didn't
anyone tell me that Barry Williams is the name of the guy
who played Greg Brady!? It sort of takes away from the edgyness
of the song, don't ya think? Now I gotta come up with another
name! Wait...I've got it! Larry Sanders! I'll change the name
to Larry Sanders!"
Since it's taken so long for
PG to finish this album, we were worried that Gabriel was becoming
an anal-retentive control freak when it came to recording. That
said, it was really refreshing to hear a rough cut of "The
Drop" the second song of Phase 3. Here he basically sayiing,
"It's not perfect, but I want you to hear it anyway."
And it's very simple yet effective.
The Up greeting card section
us working, but there's only one card and it's of a picture we've
all seen.
Check out the new gallery
pictures. As Chris Naegellen said, "Haha! So we have the
Blind Boys of Alabama along with the Bald Boys of Bath."
Well, we gotta sign off for now. Don't forget to e-mail us if you have any thoughts you want to share.
...about a guy who used to play Greg Brady...who might get a song of his very own (ba da ba da da)...
Okay, we've had our eyes on the lookout for a possible Up single release in the pipelines, but we haven't heard anything certain. However, PG newswatcher Karin told us that a German site has said that a single was in the works for a Sept 2 European release. The name of the single? "Barry Williams Show."
Huh?
First things first...do you know who Barry Williams is? Barry Williams is known for three things: One, he played Greg Brady on the Brady Bunch. Two, for the past decade, if not longer, Williams has traveled around the world going to college campuses to talk about life behind the scenes on the Brady Bunch. Three, he wrote a book about his life as a Brady. We know this because, er, uh well...back in college, we saw Williams little lecture show, and afterward (on a dare, mind you) we sorta kinda got a TV Guide autographed by him. Said TV Guide is buried in a box of junk in the closet of Solsbury HQ as of this day.
At first we laughed at poor Karin. We said, "No freakin' way. This site you gave us must be full of it to say that is the title of PG's single." She wrote back and said that it's also on the German Virgin website, just scroll down the list for a Sept. 2 release date. Virgin records is Gabriel's European label, so you'd kinda think the site is at least somewhat official. As Karin said, "At least at this precise moment, Virgin Germany really believes the single will be called like that!"
Our theories:
*This is a strange misunderstanding between Real World and Virgin Records.
*This is a bad joke.
*Virgin records, Germany wants to be a rumor site instead of an official one.
*Real World is having a "mole hunt" (see: Mission Impossible) by feeding several associates outlandish, confidential information and see who blabs.
*Gabriel changes song titles so fast that "Barry Williams Show" is going to evolve into "Silent Water" by the time it's actually released.
*Barry Williams is the anglicised name of Barrishinikov Wilamski, a man who died while heroicly fighting for positive change in the Monrovian Civil Wars of 1960. This other Williams is not known to Western culture, and Gabriel hopes to rectify that when he makes this his new encore song.
*Gabriel decided to title a song "Barry Williams Show" out of spite to anger all of those on the Moon Club message boards who want him to embark on a Genesis reunion tour.
*Williams paid Gabriel with trucks of cash to make a song titled, "Barry Williams Show." Williams did this because he's already done everything else to run his association with the Brady Bunch into the ground. Gabriel accepted because he figured like with "Sledgehammer" and "Steam", everyone was going to call the first upbeat single off the album a sell-out anyway.
June 9, 2002
Yes! The poll over at www.petergabriel.com is finished and the decision is made to call the new album Up! We'd like to thank all of the cool people who voted for up. The people who voted i/o are not cool, but we still love them anyway, and we hope Gabriel follows through on his idea to release another album soon afterwards and call that one i/o. We'd also like to thank Moxie for going online while we were at work to vote for Up for hours on end, as per our instructions.
This New World Buzz has a nice interview with Tony Levin with some Up info. Rollingstone.com is supposed to have a PG article up soon, so keep an eye out.
A few weeks ago, we heard that PG is getting married (it's mentioned in this article that blurbs a Lepage project, plus Karin gave us another source as well) but we don't consider that real news as our response isn't, "What a lovely surprise!" but rather "It's about damn time." Call us staunch traditionalists, but we think if you're going to live with someone for a few years and have a child with them, you might as well go whole hog and get hitched. Anyway, according to some sources, it's already happened, but it's never been officially announced. If it's happened: Congratulations! It's about damn time.
June 18 is the U.S. domestic release date for Long Walk Home. Speaking of which, we've heard some strange news about the remasters being recalled in England, although we've heard different stories from different people as to the reason why. We'll let you know what's going on as soon as anything is definite.
We have three new survey answers on the bottom of this page. We salvaged our old "favorite pictures" page and integrated it into the scrapbook. The new old stuff can be found on Page 18.
Now for a little secret of the Real World message boards: Typing <p> after a sentence will put in a paragraph break, making long blocks of text much easier to read. You're welcome.
If you want an alternative to the Full Moon Club discussions, there is a PG community run by Rob Hatcher, and there's a nice website run by Simone Vitale.
We've earned an approprately Up themed drink, and we probably won't update again until June 22nd. See ya then!
May 26, 2002
Greetings, greetings, fellow moongazers!
Let's assess what the Big Kahuna Lunatic has brought us this month...
First, look at the intro video...he changed his shirt! How nice:) We also got a warm fuzzy feeling in that Gabriel noted that he's got enough material that he may call the first release Up and a follow-up album i/o.
Second, how about that "Darkness"...it sounds very eeeeeevile and discordant, and deliciously so! Everyone who thought PG was too old to rock out can shut up now. The talk about the dark house in the woods makes for some nice Blair Witch imagery for those who are into that sort of thing.
Third: "More Than This". We love the opening rap, very moody and dark too, but uplifting with the chorus. We also liked how he talked about how, with his trusty Powerbook, he was able to find inspiration in the Internet, and spends a lot of time online. Here is a man after our own hearts.
Don't take our word for it...it's hard to descibe this music with any degree of justice. Just sign in and check it out! And we want to give kudos to the Web Team for dividing up the videos into different sizes to accomodate various hardware and bandwith issues. Yay you!
And another thing...it looks like the official Moon Club message boards are up and working. Stop in and tell everyone what's on your so-called mind. So far, so fun!
In honor of this full moon, we have assembled a series of Lunar Links to educate and entertain.
We have two more survey answers, with one of them from a Clone. Around 45 more surveys and we'll have a total of 216!
Ken from Syracuse says that the Rabbit Proof Fence soundtrack will be available in the UK on June 17. But then again, Iain from the UK says it won't be released in the UK until June 27th. All we know for sure is that Mr. Mozo Rising was kind enough to give us this transcription of an interview where Gabriel talks extensively about Long Walk Home. Note: We heard from Iain and says that while Virgin said the release date was June 27th, he found copies of the album in the store last week. Make of it what you will...
Bad news for U.S. Womad fans: Rod Krueger says that it looks like Womad will not be touring in the U.S. for the year 2002, nor is PG scheduled to perform at any Womad festival this year. The good news is that's probably because PG will be busy with his own tour. Saskia found a great page with some nice pictures of Womad 2001 so you can relive the memories.
In two of Gabriel's biographies, and in this home interview, Rosanna Arquette has threaten--, er, claimed to make a movie loosely based on her relationship with Mr. G. Karin points out an article where Rosanna has finally made some headway in making that plan a reality. Scroll down to see Rosanna's plans. All we can say is: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Maybe we'll be lucky and in the name of authentication, it'll be another ten years before it gets released.
Our pal Tony Farthing pointed out this article on the newsgroup, concerning the reconstruction of Gabriel's townhouse. Tony says it seems like making albums isn't the only thing that PG can't focus on. We were disappointed to read that Gabriel's house plans are rather frivolous and ostentatious, but then again the fact that it's taking so long proves that PG isn't that desperate to have his jacuzzi, playhouse cave and other toys.
Perhaps PG is worried that if he finishes the house, he won't be able to piss off the neighbors as effectively. We can solve that. All he has to do is invite us to his housewarming party, and then the neighbors will wish the townhouse was going under construction again. Actually, after he has us over, the house will have to go under construction again...
One more thing....PG Fan Roel wrote us with this:
Well, although it may reduce the chances of one of us winning, we'll let you in on the contest, too.
All you have to do is answer a question so simple an addled marmot could guess right, and then give your name and e-mail address. Doing so will cause you to get millions of spam messages, with roughly 75% of them containing viruses. Also, the Mongolian horde will desend upon your house, and will destroy all that has any value. Your friends and family will forever scorn you, and you'll never be able to feel love ever again. All of your cds will be replaced by the Phil Collins catalogue, and your coffee machine will break down.
Of course, if you don't want all of those bad things to happen, then don't enter the contest...just allow us to enter, and we'll suffer the consequences so you don't have to. And if we win, we'll be sure to share the joy.
If you do have a deathwish and desire to enter the contest
despite our warnings, we gotta tell ya: The answer to the question
is Alison Moyet. Give any other answer and you'll find that it's
a trap and your computer will spontaneously combust upon hitting
the enter key. Don't risk it.
May 19, 2002
Next weekend is the next full moon so we're going to wrap up a few things before the big event.
Has anyone gotten their "lunatic number" yet? Gabriel mentioned it in this transcript but now we have to wonder if he was only joking.
Eric Fortier has got a full moon countdown, and our friend Dave who has this site fantasizes about who might be PG's opening act. AfroCelt? Sounds good to us!
And those folks who were able to listen to part two of the BBC PG Documentary were treated to four minutes of the album version of "Signal to Noise." The buzz over at alt.music.peter-gabriel is goin'...says Agent Sage, "I have to say it sounds absolutely *fantastic*. Definitely my favourite of the bits we've heard so far." Hogweb sez, "It was really great indeed. The strings really make the song even more dramatic. Nusrat's vocals look like they were indeed taken from the VH1 Awards show. Well, we've heard 4 of the 13 new songs so far and there's no doubt left in my mind that Up/Io will be an amazing record...and PLEASE tell me someone recorded Part 2, I need another dose of Signal To Noise!"
Fret not...we predict if it doesn't show up on the BBC radio archives, then it'll make a nice appearance in a forthcoming Moon Club entry. See you next weekend!
April 28, 2002
Greetings, Lunatic Fringers! First, a story...
Since we couldn't find the Moon Club movie (posted Friday night) in our cache file, or find the file name so we could do a straight download, we asked if anyone knew how we could watch this excellent clip of "Don't Leave" without having to download it every single time.
The other night, some dude was good enough to give us a direct link to the vid. So we downloaded it. "Yay!" we said.
Then the same dude wrote us with direct links to other movies on Radio Real World. "What are these?" asked us. We downloaded the first mystery video and found...another cool Moon Club clip that featured a song called "Wet One"! Then another link provided a clip called "Sky Blue"!
"Wow! These must the future clips for the lunar cycle!" we said. This dude must've stumbled across a hidden directory and found these files that they were waiting to link to at the appropriate time!
We did the "we know something you don't know" dance for hours on end. Our plan was to keep these videos to ourselves, as we didn't want to invoke the wrath of Real World or PG and ruin the future installments of the Full Moon Club. But we were planning on being really smug about having PG clips that no one else did.
After we came down from our euphoria, we asked the dude, "How did you stumble across these precious files?"
Dude said, "Uh, the files are posted on Radio Real World for anyone to download. I just thought you wanted a direct link to them."
D'oh!
So, as you already know, two days after RRW posted the one excellent clip of "Don't Leave", they then posted clips of "Wet One" and "Sky Blue". There's also a poll, but we'll get to that in a moment. Now, it's commentary time:
For those who want a transcript of the Moon Club Intro and "Don't
Leave" video, our friend Adella was cool enough to write
one up. The first transcript on the page is unadorned, but after
that, we give it the MST3K treatment.
"Don't Leave" is so wicked-cool!
It kinda reminds us of "Red Rain" on steriods, although
we can't explain why.
Know how PG is recognized for having developed
a "cymbal-free" sound (especially noticed on PG 3 and
Security)? It sounds like Gabriel is trying to make up for it
by putting 20 years worth of cymbals into the last few seconds
of "Don't Leave".
Gabriel starts the one we like to call "Wet
One" with a ramble about how he can't make up his mind what
to call the title of this song, or the title of the album, either.
Then he says that he perhaps wants call the entire album Io. We'll
get to that in a moment...
Even though we haven't heard the song in it's
entirety, we bet that "Wet One" will have more sexual
imagery than "Steam" and "Sledgehammer" put
together. Okay, perhaps we exaggerate...
However, Gabriel has a tradition of soberly
psychoanalyzing these songs that are steamy in nature. "Sledgehammer,"
he explained, was about getting through a breakdown in communication.
"Steam" is about a guy who knows a woman who knows everything,
but he knows her. For "Kiss that Frog" Gabriel rambles
about fairy tales and psychology in a dry way that we don't want
to repeat here.
For "Wet One" Gabriel pontificates that one dot symbolizes "on/off, what is and what isn't..." and three dots, "...defining three-dementional space..." Meanwhile, the lyrics running underneath this serious analysis go like, ""my balls like to travel... so deep into your space..." Then to drive the point home, the song's also called "In/Out" and a quick clip of a train going into a tunnel can be seen in the intro. Yeah, we know what's on your mind, Peter.
"Sky Blue" sounds beautiful and
bluesy. We don't care if it's recycled from the Rabbit Proof Fence
soundtrack, we love the Blind Boys of Alabama riff here.
While we wouldn't blame you for wanting to wait until you can hear the whole album before passing judgement, so far we're pretty excited based on what we hear here.
Okay, we're voting Up over i/o (or IO or Io or io or whatever the hell he's talking about.) Here's why:
We've known it was going to be Up for
so long, that we've stockpiled a series of Up puns and
expressions to be used as update headers for this page. If he
changes it to i/o, we're screwed. Even more so than when he came
out with an album called Ovo. You try to come up with something
clever with Io.
Okay, we thought of one possible subject
header: Io, Io, It's Off On Tour We Go...
PG has had Up as the designated title for
several years. Judging from the clips we just heard, PG changes
the titles of his songs faster than a hooker changes underwear.
That said, it would be really nice to see PG stick with something
for a change.
Io is the name of one of Jupiter's moons,
but the planet is named after Io
the cow, a figure in
mythology. So the album would be named after a cow.
Might as well name
it Elsie for Pete's sake! And also, if this album becomes
Io, then get prepared for all of the music critics and historians
to start refering to this album as the "Cosmic Cow"
album. Does Peter want that? Do you want that? If not,
vote for Up!
April 28, 2002
Hey, people are starting to get excited since PG mooned the Internet the other night. According to RRW and PG's introduction on the sneak preview page, we can expect a new clip every full moon, and as PG sez, all one has to do is to go outside at night to see when the full moon to know when a new clip is up.
We Here at the Hill want to save you the trouble of actually having to walk away from your computer to go outside. Our research reveals that the next full moons will occur on these dates: May 26, June 25, July 24, August 23. We can expect to see some new clips then!
People have contacted us to say that, while the name "Moon Club" is really hokey sounding (hence prompting us Solsburians to dub the Moon Club Members with a better name: The Lunatic Fringe) the Club sounds like a very nifty thing indeed. However, one person was rather perplexed. Isn't it odd that PG is basing his release date on lunar cycles? Hey, it beats the hell out of what he was basing his release date before...the return of Hailey's Comet.
Well, gotta run...to celebrate the good news, we've built a bonfire out of the speeding tickets from our cross-country trek, and then we've got to contact our comrade Herb to see if he's up to designing the album cover for Up. Then we're sending our pals Penn & Teller go over to Robert Lepage's house to discuss the future of the Internet with him.
"Drink Up, Dreamers, You're Running Dry."
"It's Showtime."
E-mail, It's What We Need, It's What We Feed On
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